Mind-Body Healing – A Powerful Tool

Mind-body healing describes a powerful system for self-transformation based on our universally shared experience of the connection between our minds and our bodies. When we’re nervous about an upcoming deadline or a family member’s illness, our anxious thoughts are accompanied by anxious bodily sensations: tension in the neck or back, butterflies in the stomach, or maybe a headache. When we are mentally frustrated by a difficult project or irritated with someone, we also feel our frustration as a clenched jaw, a tight chest, or some other sensation. When we are deeply focused, our body also feels at peace. There is a constant interaction between what we think in our mind and the sensations or feelings that our body registers.

Mind-body healing uses this connection to enable you to heal at deep levels by helping you experience how mind and body interact with each other and use what you learn to change your physical, mental, and emotional responses to life. You may need to recover from serious physical illness or stress; you may need to heal from a vague sense of discomfort and frustration; or you may simply want to improve your current level of functioning. Whatever your goal, working on the mind-body connection can become your most powerful and rewarding ally on the journey to greater health and life satisfaction.

Many people don’t understand how transformative mind-body healing can be because they have a limited or even wrong view of what mind-body work is. They may think that it involves things like relaxation techniques, visualizations, and affirmations. These are mostly ways of influencing the body through the mind. While they are one aspect of mind-body healing, they barely scratch the surface of what mind-body healing is really all about.

Mind-body healing is the process by which you become more connected to your body and use that connection to make decisions that really work for you. For one person, that might mean learning to use body awareness to let go of chronic physical tension related to anxiety. As a result of learning to release physical tension, the person will also be able to release mental anxiety. For another person, healing mind and body may mean learning to reduce lower back pain by becoming more aware of how she uses her body when standing, sitting, or walking. For another person, it might mean improving their golf or tennis swing by learning to breathe deeply while playing, something that automatically relaxes muscles and improves concentration. For another person, healing the mind and body may mean learning how to speak assertively by controlling your body language.

For another person, mind-body healing may involve learning to get in touch with deeper feelings hidden from the conscious mind. A person who does this type of work may learn, by connecting more with her bodily feelings, that although she thought she was happy in her work, in reality she is not and therefore wants to move on. In a case like this, a person recognizes that it is really the body that contains the central truths of our lives, and not the conscious mind. And this example reveals the true depth and power of mind-body healing: when we find guidance to be more in touch with the unconscious wisdom of our bodies, we find a path to true healing. This is why, for example, some people overcome life-threatening illnesses like cancer or long-term pain or neurological problems by contacting hidden feelings of fear, anger, or resentment that are stored in the body and, if not recognized, , possessed and transformed, contributing to a physical disease process. In cases like this, the illness is actually the body’s deeper wisdom being shared with you and asking you to search for your inner truth: something most of us tend to be out of touch with until life forces us to. a deeper self-awareness. .

Every case of mind-body healing is different. What makes them all similar, though, is that in each case, a person becomes more powerful by listening more closely to how their body feels, and then working with that body awareness to make better decisions about their life. If we can get in touch with our body, we can master our life. Holistic Mind Body Healing teaches you how to transform your life by becoming more present in your body and then using that sense of presence and increased self-awareness to bring greater vitality, peace and power to your daily experience.

© 2007 Ingrid Bacci PhD All rights reserved

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